Dave Francis

Osama bin Ladin is on everyone’s a-list these days. He is the closest thing we have seen to a James Bond villain in my lifetime. He is an ultra-rich, secretive head of a worldwide organization of terror with unseen tentacles seemingly everywhere and nowhere. His appearance, a 6’4 inch 160 lb. Bearded boogeyman is as exotically absurd as anything we Americans could have dreamed up. If Hollywood had invented bin Ladin, it might have made a very good movie.

What about him though? While secretive, there is information out there, if you want to look hard enough.

Born Osama bin Mohammed bin Ladin in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1957, reportedly the 17th child of 52 born to Mohammed bin Ladin, a one eyed, illiterate, Yemeni who came to Saudi Arabia as a laborer and through perseverance and discipline, willed himself to great wealth.

Mohammed bin Ladin came to Saudi Arabia in the 1930s, and toiled for literally pennies a day. He worked and saved, eventually founding a construction company. His company gained contracts at first by viciously undercutting prices, and eventually won favor with the royal family. The bin Ladin company became the countries unofficial builder, and was awarded the contracts to restore the religious sites at Mecca and Medina. At one time, during economic difficulties for the Saudi royal family, Mohammed bin Ladin reportedly loaned money to King Faisal to help them through hard times. Reports are that the elder bin Ladin paid the salaries of Saudi civil servants for six months. The Yemeni laborer, who had struggled to get to Saudi Arabia, who died in an airplane crash in 1968, still signing his name by making an X, had truly arrived.

Osama’s mother was the 10th wife of Mohammed. Unlike Mohammed’s other wives, she was 22 years old, educated, and refused to wear the traditional veil typical to Islamic women. She was Syrian, or Palestinian, depending on whom you ask, but she is universally described as the least favored among the wives, and Osama was their only child. She was referred to as ‘The Slave Wife’ by the rest of the household.

Osama was a quiet, well behaved, boy. He was described by his private tutor as kind and considerate. He was a good student, and was not at all adverse to western culture as a teen. He went by the nickname of Sammy, and on frequent trips to Geneva, was seen sporting silk shirts and bell-bottoms. Bin Ladin finished high school in Jetta in 1974 and began college at King Abdul Aziz University. He married his first wife, a Syrian, related to his mother, at the age of 17.

During these formative years of schooling, one of the influences that appear to have left a deep impression on bin Ladin are his many contacts with pilgrims to the holy lands. The bin Ladin family hosted literally thousands of these pilgrims, and it can be safely assumed that their devotion impressed the young Osama.

After the death of Osama’s father, the family was run by the elder brother, Salim bin Ladin, who like his father, died in a plane crash. Just outside San Antonio Texas in 1988, Salim’s light aircraft hit a power line, and the second bin Ladin head-of-household was killed. It has been reported that Salim was flying a BAC 1-11 purchased by Prince Mohammed bin Fahd, and that the plane had been used in secret meetings in Paris with Iranians, regarding relations with the USA. No firm evidence has been uncovered to substantiate these rumors, which are very widespread in the intelligence community.

It was during this time that Osama became fascinated with Islamic fundamentalism, and the extremism it sometimes fosters. Bin Ladin began to fall under the spell of a Palestinian born, Jordanian academic named Abdallah Azzam. Azzam, the founder of the terrorist organization Hamas gave speeches, was on the radio, and distributed cassettes throughout the Arab world, and bin Ladin became a devotee. It was the culmination of a dream for bin Ladin later when, in Pakistan, he would work hand in hand with Azzam to fight the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

He also made useful contacts in other areas, striking up a crucial friendship with Prince Turki ibn Faisal, a young royal and the future chief of Saudi intelligence services. These contacts may have been serving bin Ladin well until the present day.

In 1979, Osama graduated college with a degree in civil engineering, and he began postgraduate work as a terrorist. It was in 1979 that the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, and the following spring, Osama, aged 22 went to Pakistan to help the resistance. Basing himself in Peshawar, often called the Dodge City of Central Asia, he met his political mentor Azzam. They set up a support group there called the “House of the Faithful”, and used it as a base for training, equipping and deploying fighters in nearby Afghanistan. While Osama was on the road to Saudi Arabia a lot, raising funds for the mujahadin, (CIA estimates are in the range of 50 million per year was raised by donations to bin Ladin.) he was ‘one of the boys’ when in Peshawar. Osama stayed in the Spartan quarters provided at House of the Faithful, sleeping 12 to a room on mats on the floor.

Later, bin Ladin traveled to Afghanistan and joined in battles. In brutal fighting in Jalamabad, showing no regard for his personal safety, many Afghan veterans remember him fighting shoulder to shoulder against Soviet soldiers. Bin Ladin served in Afghanistan in a combat capacity from 1986 until 1989. He earned the respect of his men with personal bravery, and their loyalty with generosity.

The stories of bin Ladin sending money to Afghan fighters families after their deaths are rampant. If only a fraction are true, bin Ladin demonstrated with his generosity a concern for his men that would do any commander proud.

Reports of bin Ladin receiving CIA support while in Afghanistan are taken as conventional wisdom. It isn’t as simple as that however. It appears that, oddly enough, there was very little if any contact with bin Ladin in a direct role. Bin Ladin concentrated his efforts on recruiting assistance from the Arab world, and even though his family had, and still has close ties to the US, including it’s political and military establishment, no hard evidence can be found tying bin Ladin directly to American sources. This doesn’t mean they weren’t there, but you would expect some real evidence to have become apparent, and it hasn’t.

One thing he did do was build contacts in Pakistan that have served him well, and continue to serve him today. Pakistan’s intelligence service, the ISI, is brutal, radical, and unstable. There are factions inside who have allegiances all over the globe, and not just a few are allies of bin Ladins. (Recent reports in US newspapers say that bin Ladin received nuclear materials from Pakistan, and two Pakistani’s have fallen under suspicion for possibly helping al Qaida construct a nuclear device. One of these men is the father of Pakistan’s nuclear program.)

Osama returned to Saudi Arabia a hero. He was widely hailed and roundly cheered as he hit the circuit in Riyadh. Things didn’t sit right with Osama in the kingdom though, and he made his criticisms of the royal family known.

A lot of his anger may stem from the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, and the house of Saud’s rebuff of his offer to help.

In 1990, Osama went to the royal family in Saudi Arabia with an offer to outfit and lead 30,000 men in a battle to oust Saddam from Kuwait and secure Saudi Arabian oilfields from the threat Saddam’s armies represented. Weighing all it’s options, Crown Prince Abdullah turned bin Ladin down flat. The prospect of having a battle hardened army of radicals, loyal to Osama bin Ladin brought together for the purpose of defending the regime seemed like a risky venture, and so Abdullah turned to Washington for assistance instead. Not long after this offer, Osama bin Ladin was placed under house arrest, and remained a prisoner until he was invited to come to Sudan by Hassan al-Turabi, the de facto leader of Sudan at the time.

Osama went, and took his engineering degree with him. Along with him went his four wives, his children, and several hundred Afghan veteran bodyguards led by Saifu al-Hasnain, a 35 year-old Egyptian.

Sudan needed help, and the industrious bin Ladin helped. He built roads, buildings, and at the same time reached out globally to terrorist groups in Chechnya, Jordan, and other affected areas. In Baku, Azerbaijan he began an aid agency, similar to the one he had run in Peshawar, but more international in scope. In London he started the Advice and Reform Committee, a radical organization, advocating overthrow of the house of Saud.

His company, Ladin International built, among other things, a 700-mile highway, and was given the concession for export of sesame seeds. (Sudan is the third largest producer of sesame seeds worldwide.) During this time, bin Ladin had an office, went to work, had board meetings, etc. His radical views were getting more and more in the way though. In 1994, the Saudis, increasingly disturbed by bin Ladin’s radicalism, revoked his citizenship, and his presence was interfering with Sudan’s desire to join the civilized world. Bin Ladin was becoming more and more a hindrance, and the Sudanese tried to hand him over to the US, in an effort to curry favor in the west.

By 1996, Osama was expelled from Sudan, and he made his way to Afghanistan. In October of that year, we find bin Ladin in Kabul, making contact with the mayor, Mohammed Rabbani. It was through Rabbani that bin Ladin would begin forging his ties with Mullah Omar and the rest of the Taliban leadership.

It was also in 1996 that a bombing occurred in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, that killed 19 U.S. servicemen. In another odd twist to the story, it was the Saudi binLadin Group, a construction firm, headed by Osama’s older brother that won the contract for reconstruction.

By early 1997, bin Ladin was well on his way to earning his place with the Taliban when they, the Taliban, discovered what they said was a Saudi plot to assassinate bin Ladin. The civil war in Afghanistan was going well for the Taliban, and they controlled about two thirds of the country. They invited bin Ladin to move to Kandahar for his own security. Bin Ladin moved into an old Soviet base close to Kandahar airport. He improved his standing with the Taliban funding huge military purchases, building mosques and buying cars for the leadership. He built a new residence for Mullah Omar and his family on the outskirts of the city, among other things.

He imported a fleet of over 3000 used Toyota’s and gave them to Taliban soldiers, so their families could earn a living. This is the kind of thing that earned him great loyalty.

On August the 7th, 1998 there was an explosion in Nairobi. The driver of the truck in Nairobi, a Saudi named Azzam had gone to meet Allah.
A light brown Toyota pickup truck was vaporized when the huge bomb it had been carrying had exploded. 213 people were killed and 4600 wounded as the US embassy, a secretarial college, and an office block were destroyed in the blast. A few minutes later, a second bomb, at the US embassy in Tanzania, exploded, killing 11.

In Nairobi, one of the suicide bombers had second thoughts. Mohamed Rashid Daoud al-Owhali, a 22-year-old Saudi had jumped from the truck and run, later telling the FBI he had been handpicked for the mission by bin Ladin while training in Afghanistan.

Thirteen days later, the US sent volleys of cruise missiles into Afghanistan, mainly destroying the empty tents George Bush has since derided.

According to a published report, “Three months after the missile strikes two luxury jets landed at Kandahar air base. One brought Prince Turki al Faisal, bin Ladin's student friend and the head of Saudi Arabia's security services. The second was empty. It was there to take bin Ladin back to Riyadh.

Prince Turki, who had been crucial in getting millions of dollars of official aid for the Taliban, went straight to Mullah Omar's residence where a magnificent lunch had been laid out. The prince began to lecture the Taliban leader about his ingratitude to his former benefactors. In the middle of his tirade Omar took a water jug from an attendant and emptied it over his head.

'I nearly lost my temper,' he told the astonished prince. 'Now I am calm. I will ask you a question and then you can leave. How long has the royalty of Saudi Arabia been the hired help of the Americans?' Lunch went uneaten and the second plane returned to Riyadh empty.”

It was shortly after this demonstration of loyalty from Omar that bin Ladin pledged his loyalty to the Taliban leader, and publicly recognized him as the ‘Leader of the Faithful.” Mullah Omar, the one eyed cleric, and leader of the Taliban, would now play the spiritual father to Osama bin Ladin. (Omar reportedly lost his other eye in a firefight with the Soviets. It is widely told that when hit and wounded by a shell fragment in the eye, Omar cut out the ‘offending eye’ and continued to fight.)

Published reports in Europe say that a senior al Qaeda official detained here has begun to talk. He tells the story of the aftermath of the missile attack on the camps. Reports say that China paid several million dollars to bin Ladin for access to the unexploded missiles. According to the Pakistani newspaper Ausaf, in a report filed 4 months after the August assault, it was claimed that al Qaeda found 40 of the 75 missiles the US had fired unexploded at the sites.

Lasid Ben Heni, a 32-year-old Libyan arrested in Munich is accused by Italian officials of being a liaison for al Qaeda members based in Germany and Italy. At a meeting in March in an apartment in Milan, Ben Heni met with Sami Ben Khemais Essid (alias "Saber") and recounted his experiences in Afghanistan, visiting bin Ladins camps. Italian police, long used to battling the mafia on its soil had the apartment wired.

"Perhaps the Americans are convinced by the bombardment of the sheikh's [Bin Ladin's] training centres," Ben Heni says. "For them, it was a victory. But, in fact, it was a defeat because the majority of the missiles didn't even explode." The transcript continues, "With these weapons, he [Bin Ladin] has boosted his financial resources. From every part of the world businessmen who hate Americans have come to study American missile strategy. In particular, businessmen have come from China. He works a great deal with China. He's got good relations with them. You see them and you ask 'But what are they doing here?' In the end, you understand that they work for the sheikh and that they came to study these missiles. Thanks to the money that comes from these studies from outside, he created the army of mohajedin headed by Omar Zayan (or Zaghan) in Chechnya".

Later in the tape, Ben Heni says: "When [Bin Ladin] saw that the Afghan people, who were dying of hunger, passed missiles to sheikh Messaoud, he bargained with the Chinese and sold them to them for an enormous sum - I think $10m dollars - but only after the sheikh had studied them".

Bin Ladin has also given the Chechens 2 tons of pure heroin, with a street value estimated as several hundred million dollars.

Now, inextricably linked to the Taliban in Afghanistan, with Islamic revolution worldwide on his mind, bin Ladin settled down to the life of your average urban terrorist. When not studying the Koran, or supervising the training and recruitment of recruits, security has been his main concern. Now wary of electronic communications, bin Ladin has adopted the ages old system of runners, trusted aides who receive his messages then carry them through the mountain passes to emissaries with the outside world. The image of him sitting somewhere in a mountain cave, computers humming in Batman-esque splendor are just wrong. For a long time, bin Ladin has been increasingly isolated from the outside world.

According to Russian intelligence sources, there are more than 50 al Qaeda strongholds identifiable in Afghanistan, and bin Ladin has shuttled between them for a long time. It is known he used a base southwest of Kandahar, close to where the US Rangers attacked recently, as a headquarters.

Up to the minute reports are making it seem more probable that al Qaeda has some sort of nuclear capability. Al Qaeda member Jamal al-Fadl said in federal court last winter that he had helped Osama bin Ladin's operatives arrange meetings aimed at acquiring black market fissile materials, probably from former Soviet states. According to further testimony by al-Fadl, the plans fell through, but it is increasingly believed that even Russian mafia members may have compromised Pakistan’s nuclear program. Washington is now openly stating that bin Ladin may have achieved a ‘nuclear suitcase’ bomb. There are secret plans, in use today, to protect the President and sen
ior administration officials in case of a nuclear blast.

The US has developed nuclear warheads as light as 60 pounds, and it is believed the Soviets had successfully produced smaller devices, designed to be used by Spetznatz forces against NATO troops in the event of a conflict. These smaller devices, known as ‘backpack bombs’ first came to US attention in the 90’s. Revelations by a former Soviet officer in 1998 are frightening.

In a CIA ‘blue border’ report, (That classification means it contains material from a foreign source of the greatest sensitivity.) the details were presented to then President Clinton and his National Security Advisor Sandy Berger. Government officials are quoted as saying, “The report was so secret, the two men were only allowed to initial the document before it was returned to the CIA’s custody.”

Berger’s office has refused comment on the matter stating that no comment could be made because it was an intelligence issue.

Various accounts, not the least of which come from Soviet defector General Aleksander Lebed, the former head of Russian State Security, say that 48 of the devices are unaccounted for. In testimony before Congress in 1997, Lebed said there were bombs, made to look like suitcases, and one person in a 30 minute time span could explode them.

The AP reported that the Czech government has acknowledged that Mohammed Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague.

`We can confirm now that during his ... trip to the Czech Republic he did have a contact with an officer of the Iraqi intelligence, Mr. Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir Al-Ani,'' Interior Minister Stanislav Gross said.

William F. Buckley, the former CIA agent, conservative icon, and founder of National review has suggested that the USA ask our allies in the Islamic world to sign and distribute the following statement.

"We, political leaders of the community of Islamic nations, reject such terrorism as was practiced on September 11, 2001. The men who took this action in the name of Allah were impostors who profaned the word of the prophet."

Not more would need to be said, but that Declaration of Islamic Doctrine and Modern Terrorism, with names and titles of world leaders, should appear everywhere, in parliaments and mosques, subway stations. And airports.



Dave Francis
St. Petersburg, Russia